The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-03-31
DAKOTA IN WINTER.
THE HOUSES KEPT TOO WARM
DURING THE COOL SEASON.
John III. Beadie Tells Number of tht
characteristics of the Country and Iti
1nhabitants-How Land is Taken Up
The New Claim Method.
Especial Correspondence

Especial Correspondence
: HURON, d. T., Feb 15-I have one fault
I to find with the living here-they keep theii
houses too warm. In the far south my stand.
ing complaint was that the houses were too
cold. In south Georgia and Florida l never
3 could keep warm indoors in cold weather
unless went to bed, but l could 60 out and
walk myself warm any ordinary winter day.
Here well built house has double
windows, and the stove takes up
as much room as a piano else
where; and in it the blaze dieth
not and the fire is not quenched day or night
especially if it is hay burner The con-
sequence is, one has to be careful of his wraps
in going out doors; and l only wonder that
coughs and colds are SO rare. If one should
! go from Cuba to Canada in December, as FIST
as lightning train could take him, the doc
tors would call him a lunatic yet we do
worse than that many times day. By steam
coils and base burners we create an artificial
climate over the whole house, then we go at
one step from Cuba to Canada, from 20 dogs.
above to 10 degs. below outdoors. Good
clothing protects the body, but what of the
delicate lining of the nose and lungs! All
can say is that | have not had the sign of
cold since l entered the territory, and there
Is less catarrh than in any eastern section l
have visited. | used to think it was the
thing to send invalids south in winter; | am
now satisfied that the average results are not
for the better, and perhaps, in the cruel kind
ness Of nature it is necessary to kill off the
weak and strengthen the strong By and by,
perhaps, civilization will reach a point where
all weaklings will voluntarily give up and
die for the benefit of the race; but have per-
sonal reasons for being glad that it will not
be so in my time.
Despite the cold, immigrants are pouring
into this country as if it were a section of
Eden. The record of the Huron land office is
amazing In the four years since it was
established there have been located and filed
on 10, 151 pre-emptions, II ,914 homesteads anil
S,31S tree claims, total of 80, 443 quarter seq,
tions and nearly as many families, besides ths
rapidly growing towns For three months
the Chicago and Northwestern road brought
six coaches full of immigrants daily, besides
a much larger number who came on freight
trains with their household stuff It is
claimed that in one season that road brought
here $4,000 immigrants and prospectors. For
one year two land offices of Dakota did more
busi.ess than all those in the other territories
and all the far west states except Kansas and
Nebraska. 1t was the great invasion of cen
trail Dakota-a crush" not equa ed probably
in the most exciting days of California OF
Pixies Peak. For while vast tracts were
taken as fast as they could be surveyed; and
then whole townships were occupied by
squatters in advance of the survey they de-
Gliding disputed claims by lot and agreeing to
stand by each other for legal location. One
township fifty miles away was taken in a
body by IA squatters, one for each quarter
section; and when the survey was completed
they marched in as battalion and filed. 1t
is scarcely necessary to add that no later
Corners interfered with them.
Beadle county, of which Huron is the cap
ital, is seven townships long and five wide,
thus containing Lee square miles; so the
land settled in this one district in four years
is equivalent to seven counties like this, OF
about eighteen of the average in Indiana
From here to the Missouri river all the good
land at all convenient to the railroad is taken
= but northwest there is much fine land ye
vacant, especially in Faulk county.
branch railroad from Redfield, on the
Chicago and Northwestern road, is goine
through that county early in the
spring. OF course, every intending i'm
migrant knows all about the presumption ant
homestead laws, but the true claim method
is not so we'll known. To get 100 acres by
presumption costs S2O2 in payment and fees
to get a homestead, is SIS in fees
to get a true claim the same a.
homestead, with longer time ant
more work, but man has small fortune
when he gets it. You must first file as for E
homestead and break five acres of sod the frs
year. The second year cultivate that five
acres and break another; the third year
plant the first five in timber, cultivate the
second five and break third and the fourth
year plant the second five; then you have
filed the requirements of the law. You car
plant either by seeds or cuttings; and mus
plow among the young trees enough to keel
weeds and grass down till the trees get large
enough to shade the ground. You can make
final proof and get Uncle Sans warranty
deed at the end of eight years, or any time
before the end of fourteen years; and unit
you do, your land is exempt from all taxes
This item alone will more than repay the cost
of planting, and ten acres of timber is as lit
tie as a man should plant anyhow
even if he takes homestead or pre-empion.
My first impression was that this country
was monotonously level; but that is all in the
eve. As q matter OF fact, the James river
runs in trough from near Mime Wakau tc
Vermillon on the Missouri; and though tbs
- sides of the trough rise very gradually, they
rise high For instance, this city is only ,29t
feet above tide, or 6S5 feet above Chicago
but westward the country rises 800 feet il
sixty miles, and eastward but little less
The summit of the divide east of here is 5O(
feet higher than this, while the water level o.
the Missouri, at Pierre, is 100 feet highe
than the town plot of Huron. Of course tn
Missouri has to get down hill very rapidly t.
make the descent from there to Vermllion
where the James joins it; yet the James ha
a fall of but one foot in five miles of it
course. 1t might be made canal through
its whole length if it were not SO discourag
1t ingly crooked. Its crooks are all within
l. narrow range, however, confined to the i'm
" mediate valley and between that and the frs
o level Of the through" there is considerable
bluff. The SUBMITS of the dividing ridges
both east and west of here, are called cou
teaus, which may be freely translated back
I bones.
'. The geology is peculiar, and the paleontol
l. ogy would set Cuvier wild. They have founc
so many curious things that one need not b.
at all surprised if they find a petrifed ele
=. plant! But 1 have observed that amateur
If biologists, as a rule, are given to finding
], things The big pile of Notifications they ex